A manifestation of coronary artery disease is the build-up of plaque on the inner walls of the coronary arteries, which causes narrowing or complete closure of these arteries, resulting in insufficient blood flow. Surgery to alleviate this problem often involves creating an anastomosis between a blood vessel and a graft vessel to restore a blood flow path to essential tissues.
Current methods available for creating an anastomosis include hand suturing the vessels together. Suturing the anastomosis is time-consuming and often does not provide a leak-free seal. Furthermore, suturing requires the heart to be isolated from the systemic circulation, and the heart must typically be stopped for an extended period of time, so that the anastomosis site on the heart is blood-free and still during the suturing of the anastomosis. Thus, it is desirable to reduce the difficulty of creating the vascular anastomosis and provide a rapid method for making a reliable anastomosis between a graft vessel and artery.
One method available for expediting anastomosis procedures is through the use of anastomosis fittings for joining blood vessels together. These fittings, however, require multiple components which make installation of the fitting difficult and time consuming. Moreover, these fittings expose foreign material of the fittings to the blood flow path within the arteries, which increases the risks of hemolysis and thrombosis.
Another method currently available involves the use of stapling devices. These instruments are not easily adaptable for use in vascular anastomosis. It is often difficult to manipulate these devices through the vessels without inadvertently piercing a side wall of the vessel. In addition to being difficult to operate, these devices often do not provide a reliable leak-free seal.